Jicky - where is the filth?

After a spray in a department store, Jicky was on this newbie's 'to have' list (along with Bandit, Timbuktu & Dior Homme - and pre-2010 L'HB if I ever could afford it)

So I got a bottle of Jicky EdP for my birthday. It's lovely; I love it. But I'm puzzled. I read so much about how this is a difficult fragrance (I like difficult and complex) and yet to me it is cool (and yet warm), fresh, spicy, shimmering, sweet. Easy to like. Not difficult.

I can see where the 'vomit' association is coming from, I can sometimes smell that in the slightly sour sweet of the lavender-bergamot, although only when I try (otherwise I just smell lavender-bergamot-citrus-and-something-else-astringent---polish???) in the top notes. Then I get vanilla, cream, lots of cream (ice cream? creme brulee?), some herbs (thyme?). But I can't, no matter how hard I try, find the 'poop', 'farmyard', 'toilet' notes that I see mentioned in reviews.

I have a 2011 bottle (read from the batch code). Luca Turin assures me in _The Guide_ that, if anything, the post-2010 is raunchier, dirtier than before. So why can't I smell it like that??? I want to!!!!

I totally get (and quite like) the grubby in L'Air de Rien, for example. But Jicky just seems.... tingly, sweet and ...... nice? My husband says it smells like 'apple turnover' which was a bit disappointing (although having said that he is not into fragrance at all, not even interested enough to dislike it particularly).

What am I missing? Help me understand. What am I smelling out for? I need some guidance please, and some reassurance that I haven't received a dud.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

I love Jicky as well. The "raunch" is a much-maligned fecal note of civet. I've only sampled the edt and parfum, and I find that the civet is stronger in the parfum. But in both, it seems almost like a top-note. It peters out on my skin after a short while, leaving me with a complex vanilla. I admit to disappointment that it doesn't hang around longer, but I can't help loving the whole thing!

I think your bottle is probably fine. Sometimes the hype around a perfume can build expectations a little too high. Focus on the first few minutes and you'll pick out the civet no problem.

And just as an aside, there is a rather strong civet note in Shalimar that hangs around for a while, blended in with the florals. It's most noticeable in the newest formulations.

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Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Thank you, Mr B-V (great name). That's super helpful. I do adore Jicky and keep thinking I'd like to take a bath in it (?!!?). I think also that you are right about the top note thing. I think this is why I keep wanting to re-apply, re-apply, when with pretty much every other fragrance I own I much prefer the dry-down stage.

For what it's worth, I really do smell properly dirty underwear in Angel. (And I like it, although I'm not in the right space for Angel just at this point in my life). And I smell real live animals in Dzing! Just not Jicky.

I always thought civet was the 'cat's piss' note that I always used to get with fragrances after a few minutes. I thought I couldn't wear fragrance until recently. Turns out that might just be what florals do on my skin. Not sure yet.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Jicky is primarily a fougere with vanilla, and fougeres tend to smell rather clean, soapy almost, if you will. As BV was saying, the dirty part is the civet - it gives a sort of lived in quality and adds just a touch of warmth. But it is not extreme. It is just relative to other fougeres. If you get the chance to smell Mouchoir de monsieur, it is similar, with a touch more civet. But other perfumes have much larger doses of civet. Some vintage florals like Joy or My sin are civet powerhouses that put Jicky or MdM to shame in that regard. Ungaro II is closer to Jicky in structure and also has way more civet.

As often with animalic notes, we have different tolerance level or sensitivity to them. Some people are very sensitive, so even a small amount of civet will register as dirty. Others can take a lot. And we all have different sensitivities. Some of the other perfumes you mention have other dirty musks, not civet. Especially Dzing, which has some pretty intense dirty musks.

Civet, even in its synthetic forms, is rare in more recent perfumes, so I doubt the cats piss note you dislike is civet (unless you are talking about vintage florals, especially jasmine rich ones)

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

It's there, believe me. I have a new bottle of the edp, and I smell a lot of civet. Synthetic civet, the kind used in modern Jicky, smells stale, poopy, and warm; look for it after about five minutes or so in its development.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

I've never understood the fuss made about Jicky's filth. I cannot smell Civet in Jlicky, just a powdery warmth which counteracts the soapy clean Fougere structure.

As an aside Civet has a warm, sweet faecal smell; the "cat's pee" note mentioned can be smelled in Bucchu Oil and in Blackcurrent Buds Absolute, and is caused by a sulphur containing chemical called para menthe-8-thiol-3-one. Quite different from Civet.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Originally Posted by L'eaulita

The only 'filth' I get is a smooth, creamy, sweet, milk-fed-baby shit. Gives it a nice tone and works beautifully, despite the crass association.

Ahhh...hahhhh... I think I got it. About 30-60 minutes after spraying I did get a sort of sweet baby poo smell this afternoon in the (relatively) warm weather we getting right now in England. I should know, I have an 8-month old breastfed baby who likes to poo. Perhaps I've become a bit anosmic to baby poo.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Originally Posted by Partagas

For whatever reason, I am one of the people that don't smell the skank, filth, and pee that many others do in many scents. I just find this very interesting.

I'm the same - Muscs Koublai Khan smells pleasantly clean to me, I swear. It's a bit worrying, because I like it and scents like it, but don't want to have everyone else thinking I smell like unwashed armpit and toilets and so on.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

I think I've developed a tolerance to civet. When I first smelled Jicky I thought it was pretty raunchy. Now, the civet is almost invisible to me. I just comes across as a kind of warmth. Like many Guerlains, Jicky is a very smooth, seamless composition. It just smells like Jicky, not an combination of notes. I think that makes it harder to pick out.

I don't think it comes across as "poopy" to others, though. My wife has a very low civet tolerance, and she loves Jicky on me.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

The new EDPs and EDTs , do not have civet anymore from what this Guerlain fragrance expert in Paris told me and I believe her, there is a vomit note in the beginning but thats not civet, that the guerlinade note , civet has a distinctive musky urinal smell, which you can still detect in Kouros or Bal de Versailes (vintage), Dior Leather Oud, Ungaro Homme II .

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Originally Posted by cashmerecardi

Ahhh...hahhhh... I think I got it. About 30-60 minutes after spraying I did get a sort of sweet baby poo smell this afternoon in the (relatively) warm weather we getting right now in England. I should know, I have an 8-month old breastfed baby who likes to poo. Perhaps I've become a bit anosmic to baby poo.

But I'm glad to hear Jicky isn't meant to be a complete poo-fest.

Thank you x

And thank you David Ruskin for the tutorial on cat's pee.

Yep- that's the stuff! Glad you found it lol Apparently Mouchior de Monsieur is supposed to be a bit more filthy and is dubbed the dirty cousin to Jicky so could be worth checking out.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Originally Posted by vinramani09

The new EDPs and EDTs , do not have civet anymore from what this Guerlain fragrance expert in Paris told me and I believe her, there is a vomit note in the beginning but thats not civet, that the guerlinade note , civet has a distinctive musky urinal smell, which you can still detect in Kouros or Bal de Versailes (vintage), Dior Leather Oud, Ungaro Homme II .

I get a civet note in the current EdP - it wouldn't be Jicky without it. I question this expert. Also I don't get any vomit note, and don't think the guerlinade can be described as even remotely vomitey.

Re: Jicky - where is the filth?

Yep- that's the stuff! Glad you found it lol Apparently Mouchior de Monsieur is supposed to be a bit more filthy and is dubbed the dirty cousin to Jicky so could be worth checking out.

Thanks! And now that I've found it, I can really smell it (or, rather, 'feel' it) through the whole experience - a kind of warmth, as Rubegon says (hence it comes over like a feeling more than a smell).

Originally Posted by rubegon

I get a civet note in the current EdP - it wouldn't be Jicky without it. I question this expert. Also I don't get any vomit note, and don't think the guerlinade can be described as even remotely vomitey.

I could talk myself into smelling a vomitey note the first few times I wore Jicky. But since discovering the civet, I don't really get the vomit any more. How strange.

Gosh but I love this fragrance. Really love it. So elegant yet humorous at the same time, apparently simple (just lavendar & vanilla) but actually extremely complex. Gets more interesting every time I wear it, rather than less so as with others I'm sampling at the moment.